dealt with in the report was allegations of corrupt dealings between the subsidiaries of the pentagon which were supplying fuel. to prosecute the war effort in afghanistan and members of the family of the deposed former president of bed but key of the same report stated that these subsidiaries namely the mena corps and red star back in two thousand and nine tempted to reach out to the former president's saw on the scene but has subsequently followed his father in exile and is now in hiding in the u.k. to try to engage in bad door negotiations with the pentagon regarding the future of the base following through the stands announcement that it would shut down the base so what we saw in that case was another proof of the fact that the president's family song was calling all the shots in the country for the most one of the places what would eventually happen was the direct result of this relationship we saw what it was. where and president was ousted was the direct result of the popular anger that was stirred by the complete lack of accountability lack of transparency in the deals that th

the pentagon plans to begin its withdrawal next july, but the u.s. and its allies have committed to keep some forces in afghanistan until 2014. a lot of americans are thinking "what the heck are we doing here still?" >> well, i can understand that. i mean, it's easy to get frustrated about afghanistan. >> couric: general david petraeus is the architect of the surge. >> the surge is quite clearly working where the number of u.s. troops have been increased. >> couric: the afghan army has grown from 97,000 to 146,000 in one year, seven times more kids are in school than under taliban rule, and the economy expanded by 22% in 2009. >> the marine unit that we followed, they conducted a major assault on a town called safar bazaar in the south. and what the taliban did was, they cleared the people out at 7:00 p.m. every night, that was curfew, and they put in the i.e.d.s. so even the locals didn't know where these bombs were hidden. and as we moved in, there were bombs going off all the time. a lot of marines were getting concussions. >> hey, is everybody al

it's addictive the war profits this is where the war profiteers are headquartered tearing over the pentagon this place is known as contractors row and it's from this clear point we see there were valving doors there which employees from the defense contracting enterprise jobs at the government and likewise a significant number of officials in the government the pentagon and the cia fly into jobs in the military industrial complex despite this military contractors spend close to thirty five million dollars lobbying congress according to the congressional research service defense contractors also dish out substantial amounts of money for campaign contributions in election years meanwhile a congressional watchdog group found in two thousand and eight over one hundred fifty members of congress had one hundred ninety six million dollars collectively invested in defense contractors and so as lawmakers scream louder too we need to cut spending and federal spending for education health care and social services has been reduced cutting the military budget which makes up over twenty percent of the fe

recall the pentagon papers case. justice potter stewart put it, when everything is classified, nothing is classified. overclassification in the u.s. system means that thousands of soldiers, analysts and intelligence officers need access to huge volumes of purportedly classified material. and that necessary access in turn makes it impossible to affect to fully protect truly vital secrets. one of our panelists here today put it perfectly in a recent appearance. he explained our problem with our security system and why it bradly mandan can get his hands on all of these cables is we've got low fences around the vast prairie because the government classifies just about everything. what we really need are high since his around a small graveyard of what's really sensitive. furthermore, we are too quick to accept government claims, the risk to national security and far too quick to forget the enormous value of some national security leaks. as to the harm caused by these releases, most will agree that the defense secretary, b

number one, you're correct on the pentagon. that's not the issue. on the other hand, the so-called leakage is not there and we don't accept the russian argument isn't there. >> let's go back to -- >> key factual point here. if you look at article 5 section three of the treaty, there's a limit on missile defense and the p preamble language. >> i think that's probably why we had the cold war, right? we basically bluffed them or convinced them, reagan them or reagan did, we could put up a shield against their ammo and said, whoa, we better call it quits. >> we have thatechnology that's better than theirs. >> mr. eagleburger, do you think we face a geopolitical threat from russia today? are they our enemy or potential enemy in the world? >> oh, i suppose they're a potential enemy. they are not now an enemy. i think that where they pose a problem is that things like maybe some hands over some nuclear secrets to syria or something like that. in that regard, yes, they are a problem. in terms of the way they used to be that the two super powers facing each

katie. >> couric: david martin at the pentagon, david, thank you. in other news, the founder of wikileaks, which posted all those secret u.s. documents about the war, is free on bail tonight. julian assange, who is wanted in sweend on sexual assault charges has spent nine days in a london jail. he posted more than $300,000 bail, some of it contributed by bianca jagger and filmmaker mike will moore. he must wear an electronic monitoring tag. on capitol hill, the house is debating the senate tax cut. meanwhile, congress still needs to pass a spending bill to keep the government run. majority leader harry reid said he'll keep the senate in session until it does, through the holidays, if necessary. sharyl attkisson reports the problem may be all the pet projects in the bill. >> reporter: today, senate leader harry reid held up a tiny copy of the constitution to defend, of all things, earmarks. >> the little constitution that we have doesn't have a lot of information in it. >> reporter: earmarks are pet projects that members of congress pay for with your

pentagon officials say it could take months, particularly since some of the joint chiefs have doubts and want to go slow. >> the pentagon is trying to drag its feet on this, and, unfortunately, what we're seeing is some political obstructionism from the service chiefs roper the president tried to allay the fears of gay advocates like aaron belkin. >> i've spoken to every one of the service chiefs and they are all committed implementing this change swiftly and efficiently. we are not going to be dragging our feet to get this done. ( applause ) >> reporter: once it is done, not only the gays in uniform be able to come out, but those who have been discharged will be able to reenlist, katie. >> couric: all right, david martin reporting from the pentagon. thanks, david. and one more important piece of legislation to tell you about, congress today approved a compromise measure to provide about $4 billion in medical benefits for workers sickened by the toxic dust at ground zero. meanwhile, in chicago, when the alarm went out today, the response was overwhelming. scores of firefighters swarm

and he said that the pentagon would implement the changes slowly. in other words, diane, even if congress were to act now on this, and that's unlikely, it could be months or even more than a year before the ban is actually lifted. >> even more than a year. >> reporter: that's what i'm told. >> all right, jon, thank you, reporting from congress tonight. >>> and we turn next to that teacher who helped her classroom survive. the wisconsin teenager who held his fellow students hostage yesterday has now died after a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and late today, his family released a statement, saying they may never know the answer to the question why. the high school is closed after 24 students and one teacher spent hours trapped at gun point. tonight, everyone is saying that that one teacher made all the difference. chris bury is in marinette, wisconsin. >> reporter: today, this blue collar, ship building town struggled to understand. knowing if not for the efforts of a brave teacher, things would could have been so much worse. >> she saved the lives of

it's typical of the metro system. >> reporter: the pentagon metro system was shut down due to what was believed to be a suspicion shos package. a passenger saw blinking lights coming from a trash can. the situation was unnerving for some passengers. >> my concern is that there's been so many of these recently, i am just a little concerned that it's a dry run to check our response. >> reporter: after evacuating the area and bringing in an explosive expert, it was a christmas ornament harmlessly thrown away. for many it had already been a horrible start to a freezing cold work day. >> it's a coldorning to be out. i'm walking now. you just do what you've got to do. >> reporter: at the end of the day, proper procedure was followed and they are very happy with their response to the situation. bob barbara, back to you in the studio. >> tracy, thank you. >>> a man is accused of threatening to blow up the metro system. he told a friend on facebook that he could use pipe bombs to kill people onhe underground transit system. that friend alerted authorities. neighbors who live near him in arlingt

different-living areas. >> and the pentagon has been very carefully considering the question of gays in the military and is considering the statements by john mccain. >> and also>rangel was censhured for financial misconduct. he felt this was on fare in the year-old was fun to committed at the kokomo fundraising violations of the house rules--80 year-old. ethical fund raising violation rules stay with us. we will be back.. [ woman on tv ] if you won't let me in, you can't really love me. i know about gayle. i don't know what you're talking about. if you just tell me what happened... [ ding ] [ man ] 35th and archer. next stop hamilton. [ brakes hiss ] ♪ [ male announcer ] u-verse brings you entertainment across all three screens on your tv, smartphone and online. now get up to $300 back via promotion cards. at&t. rethink possible. the mouth >> this just in to the kron 4 news room for a judge has delayed on weather to release a transcript from jaycee dugard who was held captive for 18 years by the credo in antioch. and releasing her testimony would make it impossible to find imparti

to try to engage in bed or negotiations with the pentagon regarding the future of the base following kyrgyzstan's announcement that it would shut down the base so what we saw in that case was another proof of the fact that president's family and so on were calling all the shots in the country pretty much running the place what would eventually happened was the direct result of this relationship we saw what two thousand and ten when president bush was ousted was the direct result of the popular anger that was stirred by the complete lack of accountability lack of transparency in the deals that the pentagon was cutting with. their government. taking a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe subzero temperatures and heavy snow working to new into lead to further massive disruption across europe britain one of the worst affected so far with tens of thousands of travelers stranded flights to and from the u.k. are grounded and folks are likely to suffer several more days of delays many flights were also canceled in paris frankfurt brussels the e.u. has heavily crit

likes to get carried away with its military if you call the pentagon they can't tell you if it's seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred or thousand bases so does the media american media is saying as a matter of fact that iran has a nuclear weapons program there are the drums beating for war in washington are being echoed by our mainstream media and the list of antagonists grows one after another the government of china iran is forging ties with al qaeda and the danger that this country poses to the war in the american media there are a lot of countries that are deemed deemed at least suspicious if not enemy countries meant to be a force independent branch of power and watchdog to the powers that be the media is earning a nickname of a ministry of propaganda for the white house instead of c.n.n. you go to fox news you get these hyper adrenal arguments. between two combatants one allegedly from the liberal point of view one from the conservative point of view but the context is so narrowed that you don't get any critique of the national key security state nor the military industrial c

jon: right now a fox news exclusive on a book that the pentagon doesn't want you to read. the department of defense even take being the unprecedented step of buying all of the first-run copies it could find of operation dark heart, it's a revealing first-person account of the war in afghanistan. the defense department then destroyed those copies. the book's author, tony shaffer is now suing the pentagon saying military brass were trampling on his first amendment rights. he. jane: us now. we've had you on before, we've talked about the book before. the new develop it is you are actually going after the pentagon, you say what they did was unfair. >> not only unfair, clearly illegal and against a fundamental right we all have which is the first amendment. during the redaction process which we've talked about before on the air the fact is i presented to them unclassified sources for most if not everything within the book and offered up to them the access to the paid researcher who actually did a great deal of the research and back story for the thing. and they chose to ignore

speta pentagon has released its report on the impact of ending "don't ask don't tell." the policy that bans from openly serving in the military. look at the history of "don't ask don't tell" on line at the c-span video library. search and watch programs outlining the debate and the arguments for and against. it is washington, your way. >> a live picture from the u.s. capitol where as we just mentioned, the senate is in recess until 3:30 this afternoon. the house is also in session today. we expect members to debate and vote on a censure resolution for new york democratic congressman charlie rangel later today. watch the house on our companion at work, c-span, the senate right here on c-span2. yesterday the debt and deficit commission released a report detailing their plan for financial stability. earlier today republican senators tom coburn and mike crapo talk to reporters about the recommendation. this is about 25 minutes. >> everybody ready? alright, tom and i have put out a statement which i think you all should have now and we are both going to make reef remarks. ou

down the pentagon station this morning. we're learning more about the man who was arrested in yet another but to a bomb plot. -- metro bomb plot. >>> this is this package has been determined to be harmless. -- that suspicious package has been determined to be harmless. it was just a christmas ornament. the foiled metro bomb plot is just the second one in a couple of months. we spoke to the suspect's father. >> he said he never -- >> never, never. >> and would never? >> never. >> his son was sitting to be a doctor at george mason. he says his son is not a violent and is not a terrorist. >> they could not find anything from the bomb. they were here for six hours. >> according to the fbi, the boy talked to his girlfriend on facebook about building pipe bombs and planting them in metro cars. he also wanted to drop them in georgetown men's roles -- man holes. when his girlfriend said he would never do that he said, "watch me." >> should i stop my daily routine? >> he also described the type of shrapnel that could cause the most

it is one of the many things that the pentagon needs to work out. they say that could take months. >>> the lame-duck congress pushed through two more pieces of legislation today including the missile treaty with russia. by a vote of 71-26 the senate ratified the strategic arms reduction treaty. it mandates the reduction in the number of long-range nuclear missiles in the u.s. and russia and will monitor and verify each companycountry's nuclear arsenal -- country's nuclear arsenal. >>> the congress voted today to give billions of dollars to victims of the september 11 terrorist attack. it provides more than $4 billion to police officers, firefighters, and others who became ill when working or living near the twin towers. it will be used to monitor and treat first responders and replenish a victims compensation fund. >>> a drunken driver who killed the los angeles angels pitcher was hit with a very stiff sentence today. a judge gave him the maximum sentence of 51 years to life in prison. he was convicted back in september of charges that included seco

$650 billion now on the pentagon? how much -- and no. people suggest we could get $100 billion per year out of that. -- a number of people suggest we could get $100 billion per year out of that. >> i signed a letter with about 30 other conservative leaders, which is just about everybody in the fiscal conservative movement, which said we need to look at reducing pentagon spending, and look at defense spending. somebody had said you cannot possibly cut anything out of the defense budget, including the $100 billion per year we spent to occupy afghanistan, a country with a gdp of about $14 billion. i am not sure how we do that, but we do. is that something we intend to do for the next 50 years? $100 billion occupying this country? we are occupying iraq. how long do we intend to do that? at some point, one presumes that amount of resources can be saved out of the budget. the other question you up to look at is, what is the best non-partisans successes in reining in government spending, congressman sharp, democrat, indiana, a republican in tex

could be phased in along with the pentagon, you know, in an orderly way. if the courts act in this case, it could, in effect, change overnight. and obviously that is why the white house and pentagon would prefer the congress to act, shep. >> shepard: mike emanuel live on the north lawn tonight, thanks. the president met with two of the world's richest men in the oval office bill gates and warren buffet. discuss the giving pledge. that's initiative inviting the wealthiest individuals and families in the country to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to some sort of philanthropic procketd. the group talked about ways to help the economy. another landmark day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average closed at a two-year high for the second day in a row today. the highest finish since september of 2008. this after the fed announced it would, indeed, stick with current interest rates. the dow was up 4. nasdaq up 3 for its highest close in nearly three years. and the s&p 500 gained just more than a point on this session. those gains thanks in p

government decided instead only to cuddle it or discuss it with me is jamie mcintyre former senior pentagon correspondent jamie thanks so much for being here today for having now to tell me what's going on because honestly we have bill o'reilly coming out while he's talking about the whistleblower right saying of a need to be executed you have bill kristol saying that i don't care anymore let the president of the executive branch do whatever they need just to defeat these people get rid of them i mean it sounds like people are going crazy to me you know if the media were so upset about these revelations you think maybe they would exercise some restraint in reporting them but they're going right along with everybody else is an element of hypocrisy here plus you know the government does have tools to go out they can go after the source of the leak the person who actually gave won't be when they are doing i mean if you bradley manning they've also been the victim also prosecute news organizations and people under the espionage act if they can get them you know a lot of people forget what the p

. >> the president's visit comes exactly a year after he approved pentagon plans to wind down military operations. also days before the release of a pivotal review about the nine-year conflict. a meeting with karzai was scrapped because of bad weather. >> the army and marines say letting gays serve openly during wartime would be difficult. general james amos and army chief of staff general george casey testified before the senate armed services committee. they challenged a study that says the risk of doing away with "don't ask, don't tell" would be low. >> my suspicions are that the law will be repeeled. and all i'm asking is the opportunity to do that at a time choosing when my marines are not single arly what they're doing in a very deadly environment. >> general casey testified changing the law now would add another level of stress to an already stressed force. if the policy was implemented properly, it would not prevent the army from doing its job. democrats promised a vote to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" but its chanceses of passing this year are considered to be slim. >> vice p

what's the feeling at the pentagon about this? >> reporter: well, ali, it's not going to surprise you the pentagon is not berkeley. they do not believe this man is a hero. there are many who believe he should be convicted of the crimes which he is currently alleged to have committed. bradley manning remains jailed by the army on the accusations that he leaked a video of a helicopter attack in iraq. he's also charged with removing hundreds if not thousands of confidential documents detailing u.s. military action in afghanistan. not officially charged related to wikileaks or to those state department cables. the pentagon officials have long said they believe he was very involved in the release to wikileaks. federal investigators now trying to determine could he have really does this all on his own? it must be said these are only allegations. but inside the pentagon they are investigating this very adamantly. they believe that he is suspect number one according to senior pentagon officials, ali. >> okay. interesting story. we'll cont

papers these classified documents out of the pentagon showing extent of the deception and miscalculation that went into the vietnam war and even after a barrel judge said that the new york times which got me started for could publish them the post under katharine graham i think that i would say and i'm not alone the most courageous always or in history of america. which. i think that unfortunately we've lost connection with peter there we will try to get back to the story when we return after the holidays but let's move on right we're just two days away from christmas and if you were to walk the streets of new york you would see a city decorated and holiday cheer but not everybody can celebrate this holiday season while wall street is living the high life once again millions of americans are unemployed and they feel like they have nothing to show for their hears of hard work lauren lyster reports. in the u.s. to use the season for holiday cheer charity and this year for some of millions of jobless americans despair now why did i work all of those christmases why did i give up that time w

our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is here. he's got details because they are recommending significant cuts in the pentagon's budget. >> well, you're talking about over half a trillion dollars in the base defense budget. another couple hundred billion to fight the war. so the debt commission is basically saying defense cannot be a -- >> that's the sound of the spending, more than $20,000 every second. the defense department is asking for well over $700 billion this year. it's enough to buy gas for every adult in america, or ten laptop computers for every teen and kid in the country. hard to imagine, huh? >> i asked the military services. >> reporter: sounds good, mr. secretary, but there be a fight over whether there's too much or too little. >> that's a beginning but barely. >> it seems to me that that is probably excessive. $20 billion a year, i don't know that we're wasting that much money. >> reporter: the thing is, the secretary wants to save that $100 billion from wasteful programs to spend it in other areas. >> i want to

eagleburger, isn't that the case there isn't a problem here because the pentagon preferred to create new weapons? >> i don't think there's a problem on either of those two points. numb one, you're correct, the pentagon says they prefer to do new ones anyway, so that's not the issue. on the other hand, the so-called linkage is not there and we have said it's not there and don't accept the russian argument that it is there. so we're concerned it's not there and it's going to stay not there. >> okay. let me ask you -- let's go back to more fundamental questions. >> the key factual point here, if you look at article 5, section 3 of the treaty, there's a limit on missile defense and there's also the preampullar language. it's not accurate to say it's not there. >> i know for years the soviets wanted to avoid defense because they thought we had the electron electronics to create such a system and they knew they didn't. we had the cold war because we bluffed them or convince them, reagan did, we could put up a shield against their ammo and they said, whoa, we better call it quits. >> we hav

the big thing is you have an implementation plan that the pentagon has to go through and they have to educate the troops and the superiors to make sure that the military is ready for this massive change. but really, this is a big victory for the president, for two years, he has been trying to repeal don't ask don't tell. today, he lived up to that promise. and soon, this controversial law will exist only in the history books. with his signature, president obama repealed the 17-year-old military policy of don't ask don't tell. the new law allows gays and lesbians to serve openly for the first time in america's armed forces. >> no longer will tens of thousands of americans in uniform be asked to live a lie. >> reporter: 500 people came to watch the historic signing. and they cheered the president as he entered the room. >> thank you. yes, we did. >> reporter: but for pepe johnson, it comes to late. the former army sergeant was discharged in 2003 after admitting to superiors that he was gay. >> i really felt that don't ask, don't tell, this law was wrong. >> reporter: president obama cam

. >> the president's visit comes exactly a year after he approv pentagon plans to wind down military operations. also day before the release of a pivotal review about the nine-year conflict. a meeting with karzai was scrapped becae of bad weather. >> the army and marines say letting gays serve openly during wartime would be difficult. general james amos and army chief of staff general george casey testified before the senate armed services commite. they challenged a study that says the risk of doing away with "don't ask, don't tell" wou be low. >> my suspicions are that the law will be repeeled. and all i'm asking is the opportunity to do that at a time choosing when my marines are not single arly what they're doing in a very deadly environment. >> general casey testified changing the law now would add another level of stress to an already stressed force. if the policy was implemented properly, it wld not prevent the army from doing its job. democrats promised a vote to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" but its chanceses of passing this year are consider to be slim. >> vice president jo

. >> a new pentagon report shedding light on gays in the military controversy. up next what it says about don't skrks don't tell policy and impact on troop morale. >> also here tonight with democrats and republicans are saying about bipartisanship following today's big meeting in the nation's capital. >> i was surprised like what happened? >> she was set for a trip of a lifetime. then they she got to you can see >>> tonight the pentagon released it's survey on gays serving in the military. >> the study shows most service men and will have no problem serving with openly-gay soldiers. abc 7's mark matthews is here with details and continuing debate over this on capitol hill. >> we're hearing from members of congress pushing for repeel of the 17-year-old don't ask, don't tell policy. they foint a survey out today as prove it should be zapped. >> pentagon announced today allowing gays and less bee anyones -- less bee fin yins to serve would not pose a right after this tok military readiness. >> they'll disrupt even the short term would not be the wrenching traumatic

pentagon study surveying more than 100,000 service members and 44,000 of their spouses. just 30% predicted negative consequences from ending the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. among marines, however, that number was about 46%. >> repeal of don't ask, don't tell. potentially disruptive in the short term would not be the wrenching traumatic change that many have feared and predicted. >> and the obama administration is committed to repealing don't ask, don't tell. most republicans are opposing that repeal. hearings on repeal are scheduled before the senate on thursday and friday. >>> republicans say the discussion was frank but the gop leadership's first meeting with the president since election day yielded no concrete results. the most pressing topic on the table, the bush era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. republicans want to extends them across the board while the president and democrats want them to expire for families that make more than $250,000 a year. today the republicans said they were looking forward to more face time with the president.

what is it that the pentagon is going to do now, starting now to implement this plan? >> well starting now there's basically going to be a review to see what sorts of procedures, laws, codes that need to be basically changed. immediately after that there will be a certification process by the chairman, the secretary of defense and the president that will basically certify the unit cohesion and readiness will not be affected by the implementation. >> woodruff: my apologies. i called you swartz. it's professor shultz. >> not at all. >> woodruff: bernie rostker, will this be done in phases? i mean, how do we look for this to unfold. >> i think there will be three additional efforts. one is to prepare a code of conduct that would be implemented woud regard to sexual orientation to all service members. the service members throughout the military will have to be told what is expected of them in terms of their behavior. and then leaders will have to be trained. it may take several months, but it certainly could be done within a six-month period. >> woodruff: we're talking abo

pentagon officials say it'll take a while to make the change... since service chiefs have to address several concerns, before lifting the old policy. toyota and some of its dealerships could face a class-action suit... on behalf of prius owners, who've experienced battery failure. a new conference is planned this morning in oakland. the car owners claim toyota has not honored the warranties, of the batteries that died. toyota had recalled some batteries in the early years of the prius. time is 6-- ad lib toss to weather!!!!! santa claus may be an old-timer. but don't you believe for a moment, that he's not keeping up moment, that he's not keeping up with modern-day technology. more and more santa-related sites are popping up on the internet. one project... called "portable north pole"... sends kids personalized videos from santa. it kind of eliminates the need to sit on his lap. even post offices are noticing the difference. chicago has handled about ten-thousand letters to santa this year... down from nearly 20- thousand, just last year. and a re